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Creating custom icons for Garmin POI files is similar to, but actually easier than, creating them for custom waypoints. I’ve covered the basic details of creating custom waypoint icons in two previous posts (part one and part two), and refer you to those for the general process. But the graphic format requirements are somewhat relaxed for custom POI icons compared to custom waypoint icons:
Continue reading ‘Creating Custom Icons For Garmin Points Of Interest (POI)’
So you’ve followed the directions in the previous post, and created a CSV POI file, and uploaded it to you Garmin GPS unit. Now what?
Continue reading ‘Managing Custom POI Data On A Garmin Handheld GPS’
In the first post of this series, I compared the features of custom POIs (Points Of Interest) and waypoints for a Garmin handheld GPS unit (like my 60Cx). This post will show how to create a POI datafile that can be uploaded into a Garmin GPSr.
“Waypoints”, geographic position markers created either in a GPS unit or using software, have been a function found on virtually every GPS unit ever made. More recently, “Points of Interest” or POIs have been implemented as an alternate way to store data for a point position, and many recent GPS units let you upload your own custom POI lists. POIs provide a handy way of organizing groups of points, and can also include more information on a point than a standard waypoint. I’ll be doing a short series of posts on creating and manipulating POIs. While the focus will be on Garmin GPS POI capabilities, other GPS manufacturers also support them as well, though usually in different formats. Note: As far as I know, only Garmin GPS units that use external data storage cards (like those listed in this post) can accept custom POI data.
Continue reading ‘Introduction To Garmin GPS Custom POI (Points Of Interest) Data’
Many recent Garmin GPS mapping units (like the 60Cx and 76Cx units) have a maximum limit of 2025 map sections that you can upload directly to the unit, and you’ll get an error message if you try to exceed the limit. If you try uploading more than 2025 to a microSD card in a card reader, you won’t get an error message, but the GPSr unit will still not be able to display the data from more than 2025 maps after you put the microSD card back into it. This wasn’t such a big deal when memory was expensive, and 128 MB of memory was considered a lot – there was no way you come close to that 2025 limit with that little memory. But these days you can get a 2 GB microSD card for a Garmin unit for less than $20, and you could easily fill such a card with more than 2025 maps if that were possible.
Continue reading ‘Beating The Garmin 2025-Map Limit With US Topo Maps’
Rich at GPS Tracklog cites OpenStreetMap’s recently-completed importation of the TIGER road data for the US, and challenges me to take a look at exporting it to a Garmin GPS (based on this post, I assume). OK, sure.
Continue reading ‘A Look At OpenStreetMap's TIGER Data Exported To A Garmin GPS’
In the comments to a previous post, someone asked if there were any place where you could find a legend for Garmin GPS unit waypoint icons. I pointed him to this Garmin page, which has a partial legend for Garmin MapSource icons, but it turns out that MapSource icons don’t always resemble the corresponding icons on a Garmin GPS unit.There’s no legend for Garmin GPS unit waypoint icons anywhere else that I could find, either on the Web or in Garmin’s own documentation. For future reference, I’ve put together the following tables of Garmin waypoint icons by category. This is how they’re displayed on my Garmin 60Cx, but they may well be different on other Garmin models. In parentheses below the label is the MapSource Symbol category which contains this icon. If your unit has different or additional icons, and you can send a copy of them to me, I’ll add them to this post.
As a supplement to my recent posts on creating custom waypoint icons for Garmin GPS units (1, 2, 3), I’ve put together a list of Garmin units that I believe, based on first-hand reports, and my interpretation of their manuals, support custom waypoint icons. It’s hard to say for sure, since Garmin doesn’t specifically mention custom waypoints in any any of their manuals; in fact, they seem to want to make it as difficult as possible to find out how to use this capability. So I can’t assure you with 100% certainty custom waypoint icon support for any models other than the GPSmap, Rino, and Astro models.
| GPSmap 60Cx | GPSmap 60CSx | GPSmap 76Cx | GPSmap 76CSx |
| eTrex Venture Cx | eTrex Vista Cx | eTrex Legend Cx | eTrex Vista HCx |
| eTrex Legend HCx | Astro GPS | Rino 520 HCx | Rino 530HCx |
| eTrex Summit HC | eTrex Venture HC | Quest | Quest II |
Note: The new Garmin Colorado series (300, 400t, 400c, 400i) does *not* currently support custom waypoints; I know some people have flagged this to Garmin as an issue, and perhaps they’ll add it in future firmware updates. Given their lackadaisical support for this function, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
6/11/2010: Newer models in the Oregon series (the Oregon 450, Oregon 450T, Oregon 550 and Oregon 550T) do support custom waypoints, but in a different way than older Garmin models; see the Oregon wiki for more info. The new GPSMap 62 and 78 series support them as well.
GPSmap 60C
GPSmap 60CS
GPSmap 76C
GPSmap 76CS
eTrex Legend C
eTrex Vista C
Rino 520/530